Bungie: Erm, everytime we try to play on an actual console, a member of staff dies because of the explosions that take place whem the Microsoft Xbox 360 Computer Entertainment System is used for more than thirty minutes. [sound of explosion in background]

Chava: Okay, what do you think you'll be working on after Halo 3 is completed?

Bungie: Well, we're thinking about a driving simulator. We currently know that the game will be called Grand Tourisme.

Chava: That sounds a lot like Gran Turismo

Bungie: What is Gran Turismo?

Chava: A game for PS consoles

Bungie: Sice when do you play games on a console, we prefer bombs. Time bombs to be exact. [followed in the background by an explosion]

Chava: What can you tell us about the single player game?

Bungie: It will be crap. The only good part of our game will be the online multiplayer. You must, of course, have a xbox live gold membership subscripsion in order to take part.

Chava: What? So not only have i payed £280 on a timebomb, but i also have to pay £40 a year to play online?

Bungie: Yep. But don't worry, we include achievements with our game.

Chava: Achievements?

Bungie: Yeah, a sentence of writing will appear on-screen when you have reached an important milestone in the game. Your Gamerscore will then increase.

Chava: what is the point in that?

Bungie: It allows other members of the xbox community to see how much of a halo geek you are.

The HALO phenomenon is very interesting and i think is a good economic research subject. What's with this HALO hype? Is it that many people bought the xbox because it was new and it was an Amercian console and it turned out that there was only one relatively big game on it - halo? So people just made themselves love it since there was nothing as good to play? It is very likely that halo1 was the game that actually saved the xbox from a death. I heard that halo2 was disapointing but it had more FX so it clearly contributed to the HALO/xbox brand. And now the biggest hype in computer entertainment history over a game that until last month nobody knew anything about except for a noninnovative mulitplayer beta 2 months ago. Does 4 milion preorders mean that xbox=halo fans, whose console was killed prematurely, wanted to live the good old times again, just bought the 360 and preordered the halo3? That and the fact that MS relied the success of this two consoles on halo and conducted a massive halo marketing ad campain in the US and now it wants to do the same in europe with help of friendly (or payrolled) magazines such as EGM/1UP? And people just bought the ads and the publisher-generated hype like they buy any fad that's on some MTV for example?

Why is it so hard for some of you fanboys to accept that MILLIONS of people LOVE halo? The halo franchise was the no 2 franchise last gen (GTA was no1) so it OBVIOUSLY appeals to many of us. If you don’t get or like halo you are a minority. It’s not just egm that rated it well, every other respected game mag game both halo 1 and 2 near perfect reviews. Let me guess MS paid them all to give it good reviews. If that is the case then why didn’t brute force get good reviews in egm or any other mag? It was an MS game and MS hyped the hell out of it.

Halo fans don’t love halo because we are brain washed, we don’t love halo because it’s hyped, we don’t love halo because our friends love it we love halo because its fun as hell. I don’t need other people to tell me what is or isn’t fun I am perfectly capable of doing that myself. I am 27 years old and I have played just about every game in the history of games that has been rated a AAA title. I have been a multi system owner EVERY generation of systems. I currently own all 3 and a hardcore gaming pc and you know what I think halo and halo 2 are 2 of the greatest games ever made. I don’t tell you guys what you should or shouldn't like so shut the F and let me and the other halo fans like halo. All the people that I meet that don’t like halo ironically suck real bad at it. Coincidence? I think not.